Europe vs. Europe
Europe is running out of time, increasingly cornered by its own (in)decisions. Europe's history is stained with blood, its pages full of millions of deaths caused by internecine wars because Europeans have a DNA that is more warmongering than pacifist.
The beautiful Europe has been dominated by clans and tribes, voracious emperors, monarchs and, of course, dictators. There is not a people without a conflict with its neighbour behind the borders and far beyond.
The British have not been insulated from conflict by their island location or by being separated by the English Channel. Spain itself, with its Invincible Armada, aimed to invade England.
Century after century, Europe has seen battles, invasions and great wars; in short, destruction and death. Perhaps this time, since the end of the Second World War in September 1945, is the longest period of peace ever recorded on the shelves of history.
A peace sometimes on pins and needles because the wars unleashed after the break-up of Yugoslavia cannot be ignored and the current Russian threat has once again shattered Europeans with their ideals and their comforts.
Are Europeans willing to take up arms again to fight for their freedom, to fight if necessary to defend themselves against Russia? Most countries in Europe do not have compulsory military service. Those that do have compulsory military service can be counted on the fingers of one hand: Greece, Austria, Sweden, Finland, Denmark and Turkey.
Young people do not even know how to fire a gun, nor do they have discipline. Europe's youth is immersed in the vicissitudes of surviving in precarious jobs and achieving a belated emancipation from their parents' home. While the bulk of the "millennials" are more concerned with seeking more comforts and getting more work permits and more holidays.
Only the over-fifties are seeing Vladimir Putin's shadow grow longer by the day. The Russian dictator is unleashed, he knows that there is a change of cycle in the United States and these winds are favouring him.
On the subject
Nobody saw it coming: I well remember Putin's visit to the ranch of then US President George Walker Bush a few months after the fateful attacks of 11 September 2001.
Bush invited his Russian counterpart, a young Putin who had won the US president's affection after speaking to him on the phone a few days before 9/11 to alert him that his Russian intelligence services had information that an attack on the United States was imminent. He called him to tell him that Russia had nothing to do with it.
That call earned him an invitation from Bush to visit the United States and he took him to his ranch in Crawford, Texas. The images of cordiality and camaraderie between Bush and Putin brought Russia back to the forefront of world politics after several years in the deep freeze, especially after the break-up of the USSR. Unforgettable are Bush's statements to the press when he said "I have looked into his eyes and seen his soul" and then remarked that Putin is a good man.
Such a good man has stirred up the great problems of this global village and has always manipulated them in his favour. There is, to date, no credible and truthful scientifically proven answer as to the origin of the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic that has further pitted China against the United States; and which has left the Chinese economy badly shaken and the American and European economies on the brink of recession.
These years of pandemic, of ostracism, of being distracted by deaths, contagions, reproaches, masks, mutations and vaccines, were well used by the Kremlin dictator to prepare his invasion of Ukraine.
Military intelligence, from several European countries, has been warning for months that Putin is preparing an attack on another European country; some reports are more disturbing because they warn of the possibility of a surprise unison invasion of Latvia, Estonia and Lithuania. These are three EU and NATO member states. That would mean that NATO would be obliged to send troops to defend them.
French President Emmanuel Macron, who also has inside information, this week put the issue of sending troops to Ukraine on the table with other European leaders to stop Putin from taking over the country. There is not much time left, nor is there much choice for Europeans. Indeed, Europe is at a crossroads: Putin will rig the March elections and stay in power for six more years, until 2030, and if Trump returns to the White House there will be no more support for either Ukraine or NATO.
Such a stance weakens the Europeans in the face of a Putin who will not settle for Ukraine because he wants to take over the countries that once belonged to the USSR and the Soviet sphere of influence. This is Kramer vs. Kramer. Europe has fallen for Putin's shrewd game and now Macron is trying to pre-empt a surprise invasion. He knows full well that sooner or later they will have a war with Putin. The same damn dialectic again.